Comprehensive Voice & Performance Program
Santa Barbara, CA 1-805-280-9802
Private Lessons
Private Voice Lessons give students the opportunity to learn healthy vocal technique in a one-on-one setting. Singers learn repertoire and songs that they are interested in and may want to perform or audition with.
Scales and warm-ups – ways for singers to get to know their voice and their vocal range and to work on their technique
Repertoire – learning and working through details of songs that are interesting and helpful and enable the singer to shine
Performance – practicing a song to get it ready for performance or audition
Lessons can be recorded, so singers can review and relisten to what they have worked on and learned and can hear “from the outside” what they need to work on and how minute changes can affect the vocal sound. The voice is complex and small adjustments can make an enourmous difference in sound and quality
In short: yes! Children and teens benefit tremendously from voice lessons if they love to sing and are at all interested in getting involved in the performing arts down the road. The advantages are countless:
1. becoming skilled at correct vocal techniques
2. avoiding harmful vocal habits
3. range increase
4. better diction
5. learning and memorizing a variety of repertoire
6. becoming experienced and stage savvy
7. growing in confidence as a performer and vocal communicator
8. it’s fun!
Children and teens learn while they are having fun and they learn from each other. This is why Young Singers Club’s model of having group voice classes for younger singers has been so successful: each student learns a solo (group songs also) as part of the curriculum and each student performs their solo in front of the class, becoming more and more confident and playful and joyful, as the performing experience becomes normalized, because everyone is doing it! Not only is each singer learning and relaxing as they work on their own song and perform it, but also as they watch their peers working, sometimes struggling, but always growing, improving, and eventually succeeding.
Children and teens taking voice lessons sound stronger, clearer, and more confident and they learn to sing in a wider vocal range. They are more likely to volunteer for solo opportunities at their schools and choirs and tend to have more fun on stage and in performance or public speaking situation.
Just to give two very special examples: the young man (pictured with me on the left page) started lessons as a very shy young boy with Young Singers Club when he was four. He became so confident that he ended up majoring in voice at Juilliard in New York City. He sang major roles in most years of his junior high and high school theater productions and all four years in the top choir of his high school. He is a very accomplished young singer who has been featured on NPR and was offered countless college scholarships. It’s exciting to see where this young man is headed in his career now as a singer. Not everyone will become a professional singer, but children starting out with proper voice lessons have the advantage of singing with healthy voices for the rest of their lives.
The young woman in the picture to the left started with us in summer camps and classes and then moved to private lessons and YSC choirs. After getting her degree in Theater Arts she was able to get to sing a major role with a national Broadway Tour.
Testimonial
Thank you for the amazing work that you do for our daughter and her peers. She loves coming to your class and being a part of the group. This session I went to teach my daughter her song and she sang every word perfectly. Because of your class she has a much stronger voice and confidence in all that she does. She loves what you are doing. Thank you so much for such a beautiful gift. – R
